Like Stardrops
by PirateMasterLillian
Summary: Lily finds the courage to open a letter straight from her grandfather's deathbed for the first time, and, already having been forced to give up on her dreams, decides to make the best of it. Elliott/MC. It's short but I will hopefully update often, I wanted to get this out to add to the growing fanfiction community. Rated T for possible future language. Slow burn.
1. The Letter

"You wanted to be a writer," she chides herself, desperately fighting the elation bubbling up as she reads the letter again.

 _There will come a day when you feel crushed by the burden of modern life, and your bright spirit will fade before a growing emptiness. When that happens, my girl, you'll be ready for this gift._ She remembered her grandfather's words clearly, as if he hadn't died years ago. She didn't remember much of the years since he died, but she remembered the last time she saw him clearly. The sealed envelope he'd given her had traveled with her constantly since that day, along with those same words.

She felt the snap in her mind when she finally gave up. She hadn't felt anything real in what felt like months- _depression_ , her mind nagged at her. _You still haven't taken your pills today_. She waved off the thought in her head. The letter was far more important. She'd spent months debating on whether to open it, her mental battle having been the only thing that held her interest anymore.

She won the battle, eventually. Her mind nagged her to the point that she pulled the letter out of her desk at work, ignoring the glaring red light in her peripherals screaming to work. She hadn't been doing much in the way of work recently, medicine or not. The work and break lights could wait.

Her dearest grandfather had left her a very special gift in the form of a deed.

She could get out. The change she'd been far too lazy to make had made her.

 _Stardew Valley_ , he had written. The farm was located in Stardew Valley.


	2. The Preparation

She didn't even give the customary two week's notice to her boss at first. She spent the rest of her shift packing up everything important to her from her desk (read: the envelope, her journal, and her notebook) and bidding half-hearted farewells to her co-workers. They were more enthusiastic than she was for her departure, seemingly excited that someone had found a way out of Joja corp.'s dreary, unkempt offices.

After work, she had an appointment with her counselor. Doctor O was a lovely woman, kind and reassuring to Lily. If anything, she was the only person who still wanted to talk to Lily anymore. Granted, she was being paid to do so. Lily's parents had seen the state of her and her home, not even going so far as to visit her workplace before they mandated that she get help. Joja had driven her into the ground.

Dr. O was delighted to hear the news. "Oh, that's wonderful!" She clapped her hands, mirroring the joy that stirred in Lily's own heart.

"I think this is a good thing for me," she ventured. "I could really use the change, I think. Joja corp. has been a big part of what I think may have been contributing to my depression..." As she continued, she lost the strength in her voice. It must have been easy for Dr. O to pick up on the same thing Lily had- Joja corp. was bad for her and everyone else working in those offices. Even the thought of the corporation drove Lily to forlorn looks and a sadder tone.

"I have a good friend who lives in Stardew Valley, you know," the look in Dr. O's eyes softened at the thought. "His name is Harvey, owner of the medical clinic in Pelican Town. He's written to me a few times about the abandoned farm out there, as well as plenty of other things. If you meet him, tell him I said hello, alright?" Lily nodded and marked a list down in her journal.

 _People to pass "hellos" on to_

 _Dr. Harvey, from Dr. O  
Lewis, from Grandpa_

"I promise I will, Doctor." Lily smiled, a genuine, happy smile, for the second time in a long while.

The rest of the appointment was spent chatting about preparations for the move (Lily obviously wanted to start right away, Dr. O wanted to help), tips for getting started (Dr. O offered up her farming book, which Lily accepted reluctantly but later perused enthusiastically), and tips for cleaning and keeping house (Dr. O gave Lily, despite protests, two books on this subject- _The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up_ and another on general cleaning tips, like how to care for hardwood floors and remove stains from cloth of all kinds). Dr. O supplied tons of advice for moving out of her apartment, quitting her job in such a way that she gets the extra money for her last two weeks (she didn't want to wait another two weeks, so those would be spent researching and reading up on how best to live her new life), and even offered to come visit her home before she left town to help pack. (Packing wasn't necessary, she insisted- her only worldly possessions that actually mattered were in her bag or things like clothing and books.)

Nevertheless, Lily was more than grateful for the help and, excited to start from the very beginning of a new life, went home with a permanent smile on her face, took her pills, and called work to let them know that she needed to call out sick tomorrow and that she would be quitting in two weeks' time. She hung up the phone, smiled still etched on her face, and began looking online for local companies that would sell her boxes for the move.

 _It's time to_ _begin._


	3. The End of the Beginning

**A/N: Okay, I'm finally getting all of the introductory chapters out of the way. You can kind of consider these first three chapters to be a single prologue. I felt they were necessary to establish certain relationships and backstory that will be important later on in the story, so I kept them in. More to come soon!**

* * *

True to her word, Dr. O showed up bright and early to Lily's drab apartment, just as she was popping her morning pills into her mouth and deciding on what to eat. "Good morning, Lily," she called as she entered the small space holding a bag from some fast food place in her hand. "Do you like chicken?" She asked and held up the bag.

"You shouldn't have, Doctor," Lily said. "But... it's nice to know you thought about me." She gave a small smile, struggling her way into the positive thinking exercises she'd been advised on. "Thank you." Dr. O put the bag down on the bar in front of Lily, who dug right in.

"You're welcome. Have you made a plan on where to start?" She took her seat on the only other stool, ready to get down to business.

"Well," Lily said, wiping a few stray crumbs from her mouth, "I was reading that book you gave me, that one about tidying up, and I thought I'd follow its advice and start with my clothes. A lot of it just won't be practical for the farm life, so I think I'll be getting rid of a lot. I'm definitely going to have to go shopping before I leave for the Valley."

"Have you called the mayor of the town yet?" The doctor asked, covering all the bases Lily had totally forgotten.

"No..." She smiled sheepishly.

"Okay then, let's start by making you a few sets of to-do lists. What have you already done?" Dr. O pulled a ruled notebook out of her messenger bag, along with a pen, and flipped to a clean page.

"I called my boss and let her know of my decision to quit, and last night I found a company that will sell the boxes I need to me for relatively cheap," Lily started, counting each task she had already done on her fingers. "I was planning on calling them tomorrow morning after I had downsized what I had some. Let's see, um... I think that's all I've really done so far."

"Okay, that's a good start. What do you think you need to do?" Dr. O began writing down lists with inhuman speed.

"I need to go through all of my items and decide what I want to bring with me into my new life, I need to call that moving company about the boxes, I need to..." The morning continued on as Lily and Dr. O ate their breakfasts, creating a detailed plan of action over a steaming cup of coffee, a glass of orange juice, and the promise of something new.

* * *

By lunchtime, every article of clothing had been sorted through and almost every item had been disposed of. Skirts were useless on a farm, so they were neatly folded and placed in a pile of clothes to be donated to the local thrift store, which often donated its proceeds to charity. High heels were similarly labeled without a second thought, as well as any other shoes Lily owned that weren't sneakers. Added to her list of things to purchase were a pair of boots and pants that would be more functional on a farm.

Button-down shirts were mostly kept, being much more functional than most of Lily's "professional" business wear. She made the decision to sell some of the nicer button-downs, which she felt would be insulted by being worn for farm work. She kept all of her t-shirts save for two promotional tees that had been given to her by Joja. The idea was to get rid of things that wouldn't make her happy or couldn't be worn on the farm, so she tossed them, forgoing the donate pile, without a second thought.

The Joja t-shirts ended up being the only clothes she got rid of that she would more happily trash than donate. The small pile of clothes that remained represented most of her wardrobe for the coming months, and the only non-functional piece of clothing she kept ended up being a soft, flow-y sundress that reminded her of summer. Surely this new place would have a few occasions that called for nicer wear than mud-stained, working girl's clothes. She added flats to the list of items to purchase.

"I'm so proud of you, Lily! I can already see the improvement this move has made on your life, dear. Before we get lunch, how about we check another item off your to-do list and call up Mayor Lewis of your new home?" Dr. O gently suggested the idea, holding out Lily's cell phone with a reassuring smile. Lily took it from her and dialed the number she'd been given in the letter, hoping that it hadn't changed since the letter was written.

It hadn't. Mayor Lewis picked up on the third ring, and Lily released the breath she held as she picked up on the confused tone working its way into his greeting. The conversation went well in her eyes and the eyes of Dr. O, and Mayor Lewis ended the call excitedly welcoming her coming arrival.

Dr. O let her check off the box for calling him and the box for downsizing her wardrobe.

* * *

The rest of preparation for the move flew by, and by the time Lily returned to work the second day after she called sick, her physical and mental state had greatly improved. Downsizing her belongings and preparing her for the move had helped her in more ways than one, and it showed. Not even the gray walls surrounding her and her equally gray cubicle could completely diminish her mood, and she finished her work very early so that she could do research.

She spent the rest of her time until her lunch break pretending to work while reading articles online about farming and earning a living out in places such as the valley. She took mental notes, glancing every so often at the "work" light in anticipation for her lunch break. It would be short in comparison to the time she normally needed to eat, so she checked the clock and decided to start eating a tad early, i.e. she got up and left. The floor supervisor shot her a glare at the distracting movement, which turned into a feral snarl when she walked out the door without a care.

"Tuitt, where do you think you're going?" The shouted question, followed by a flurry of footsteps as he followed, made her feel unpleasantly like she was in high school again. Lily channeled her inner rebellious teenager.

"Out," she called over her shoulder, turning a sharp corner into the lady's room. Sure, the floor supervisor _could_ technically follow her in, but he couldn't very well follow her into a locked stall, could he? She decided to test him by going straight into a stall, locking it, and pulling her feet out of sight. _What does it matter if I follow the rules?_ She thought. _I'm just waiting out the less than two weeks I have left._

As much of a point as she thought she had, she knew Joja wouldn't see it her way. She thought of the company almost like a person now- one singular, parasitic body that knew exactly how to suck the life out of you. The bathroom door opened. The frantic, angry footsteps slowed in front of the stalls. She could hear the supervisor sigh angrily, turn, and leave, letting the door close behind him. She stood up and exited the bathroom cautiously, searching around every corner. The angry chicken had returned to his coop.

Speaking of his coop, she totally left her purse in there with all the money she needed to go buy things. She snuck back in just as the "break" light went on, so she hightailed it over to her cubicle, grabbed the purse, and snuck out with the crowd of coworkers.

* * *

Lily returned from lunch to awful news. Well, objectively awful. She was waiting out her two weeks to leave, anyway. so the large sticker on her desk that read "terminated" was more of a saving grace. She gracefully packed up the last of her items, grabbed a multitude of coupons for various Joja products (if needed, she wanted to support them as little as possible in the future), and strode out the door with her head held high and her middle finger held even higher.

"Let me tell you, it is _the_ most liberating thing to get out of this dump! See you later, fuckers, I'm going to Stardew Valley!" The hushed gasps that travelled the room as she left were so worth the bad rap should she have to return to Joja in the future.

"I'm never coming back," she said under her breath with a smile to rival Joja's own commercial actors.


	4. The Middle

**A/N: I feel like I took a step back on chapter length, but admittedly I did consolidate the last chapter from about three into one. Sit back and enjoy, now that we finally enter the valley with our hero!**

* * *

Lily spent the rest of the day, it seemed, on the phone, making calls and arrangements all over the place. In fact, the rest of her two weeks was spent making arrangements and packing, with her father's help and the occasional help of Dr. O. She was well prepared when she arrived in a small town called Pelican Town with three boxes, a wallet with scant money in it, and an old backpack that used to be filled with books.

The only things, apart from clothes and money, that Lily brought with her to Stardew Valley were books. She'd collected them from day one of her dead-end desk job at Joja and never really read them, just flipped through and imagined what it would be like to read them. Of course, she had notebooks, and pens, and bedding aside from her clothes and pens.

She'd even toyed with the idea of cutting all of her hair off to cope with the inevitable heat of summer, but one look from her dad made her change her mind.

Her dad. He'd given her a camera, a shiny new Polaroid camera that developed the pictures on the spot, with the hopes that she would send him pictures every now and again, along with all the film she'd need for it. She'd taken great care to buy extra stamps on her way out of the city, ready to send letters to Dr. O and her parents as soon as she had something worthy to write about. Those were her exact words, too- _"I'll write you guys as soon as there's something worth writing about."_ Her mother had laughed kind-heartedly. _"Lily, dear, you could find something worth writing about before you even got off the bus."_ Lily couldn't help but think that her mom had been right when she found herself occupied with describing the way the driver hunched, not the hunch of a woman who was tired of sitting but the hunch of a woman who was tired of life. She saw herself in the kind woman, beyond the age and the old, old eyes. She wrote this to her mother with a smile, mentally cursing every bump in the road but using it as inspiration to keep going.

 _Mama, you were right._

 _I haven't gotten off the bus yet and I find myself looking for the right words to describe the driver. She is about your age, Mama, but her eyes are so much older than I've ever seen. She sits over the wheel with her eyes on the road and I can tell that she doesn't think she's going to make it any farther in life than behind the wheel of this old bus. We're about to arrive in the Valley. I'm the last passenger on the bus, and I'm finally starting to feel nervous._

 _I'll drop this in the mail along with Papa's letter after I get settled in.  
Love, Lily_

She bid a farewell to the driver when she got off the bus, carefully carrying her boxes and her book bag to avoid extra trips. The letter had been folded into her journal for safekeeping, which she deposited into her bag before she got off. Now that she was off, she was faced with the dilemma of being unable to see past the stack of boxes she carried.

This dilemma quickly resolved itself when a woman quite literally took the top two boxes off her hands. "Hi, I'm Robin! Welcome to Stardew Valley, Lily!" The cheery demeanor was almost infectious and matched the bright red of her hair, Lily mused. Now that she could see, she noticed that all around her nature sung. Spring had certainly sprung here, where the only non-green greenery was the bark of the trees. Wildlife of all kinds moved between bushes and trees, and wildflowers peppered the dirt path that unwinded in front of her.

"Wow, I feel welcome," Lily responded, awestruck. _Look how even the birds welcome your arrival, how the trees applaud with the wind at your presence._ She thought to herself, then mentally chided herself. _Would you stop being poetic and flowery for five seconds?_

"I'm the local carpenter here in Pelican Town. Mayor Lewis sent me to fetch you. I think you're going to like it here." The words stirred a memory in her head of a musical Lily used to love when she was younger. She hummed the tune, following the cheery woman down the path. "The town is the other direction in that fork in the road. Your new farm is this way," she gestured with her head. It didn't take long to come to the expanse of land that was now hers. "I know it looks bad, but it's been abandoned for several years, at least. After your grandfather took too ill to stay here, no one really came out to take care of it after the crops fell out of season. This... Well, this is the result." Lily followed Robin's gaze to the "result" in question and almost dropped her box in shock.

"Oh... Oh my god. It's..." _More than you can handle,_ her mind supplied in a snarky tone. _Give up while you still can._ Towering trees overshadowed everything, dropping seeds left and right. _You wanted to be a writer, and now your life is messier than this farm._ Massive stumps seemed to have been sprinkled all over the landscape, the clear source of the hollowed logs that had fallen nearby. Boulders and branches fell between everything else, and where there weren't branches, rocks, and other debris, grass and weeds spanned the open spaces, leaving little room for much else other than a small pond nearby. _You never should have come here,_ the depression gnawed at her. _Everyone will be able to tell at a glance just how much of a stupid slacker you are._

 _No,_ she responded. _I've already given up everything to come here, and I shouldn't have done so without expecting a challenge. Good things are never easy, and easy things never good,_ she reminded herself. Robin had been patiently waiting for her reaction, a fact that made Lily realize how stony-faced she'd responded to the revelation. "It's perfect," she said, and she knew it was true.


	5. The Humble Beginning

**_Previously:_ "** _It's_ _perfect," she said, and she knew it was true._

"Is it really? I was afraid you'd turn tail and get right back on that bus with how silent you'd gotten." The response, after its initial shock, seemingly delighted Robin.

"No, I've already given up on everything in my old life just to come here. I don't have a choice but to make the most of it." _Make the most of it. How cheesy._

Her contagious optimism, no matter how out of character it was, faltered only slightly when she turned to see the farm house, which was just as equally dilapidated and messy. Broken windows accented rotting wood whose paint had long since peeled off. The roof was in a state of disrepair, and Lily shuddered to think of the effect rain had had on the inside of the building. Nevertheless, large stacks of generally fresh wood made their home in what appeared to be a relatively new section off the side of the house, and the door seemed freshly painted with bright red paint. _At least they tried to dress it up some,_ Lily thought bitterly, struggling to look on the bright side. _At least the door looks pretty nice._

Speaking of the door, said door swung open just enough for another new face to walk through. She recognized his voice before she recognized who, exactly, he was, even with Robin's helpful hint of "this is Mayor Lewis".

"Mayor Lewis, how are you? We haven't spoken much since I called, I'm afraid." There was a shuffling beside her as Robin put down the boxes she'd helped to carry.

"Ah, but that's my fault, dear," Lewis responded, his warm tone much more welcoming than the disarray around her. "I got so caught up in preparing for your arrival that I forgot to check in!" _You didn't do much preparing that I can see,_ she thought to herself.

"That's completely alright. Now, your house is a bit small and a bit broken down at a first glance, but it's very trusty-" he stopped his approach to the subject when Robin let out a loud guffaw.

"I think the word you were looking for is 'rusty'," she said with a snort.

"That was rude," he chided in response, taking on a fatherly stance. "Lily, it's best if you ignore her. I'm sure she's just looking for a chance to try and talk you into buying one of her house upgrades."

"Even so," Lily said, evenly splitting her opinion between the two, "it needs a lot of work before I'm ready to call it a home over a shelter. And I'm sure that, while it must have supported Grandpa well in his time, Robin has a good eye for what's good or bad. It doesn't take a trained eye to see that the roof has been leaking for a very long time."

Robin nodded in approval. "I know my stuff," she reassured, looking over the house with a critical eye. "On the bright side, it's rustic but don't let that fool you into thinking I'm not always available for a quote and an upgrade. You'll have to come see me when you're ready to upgrade." Lily nodded, seemingly having somewhat pleased both parties.

"Now then, Miss Lily-" Lily could get used to being called that, having received little respect in the city and not really doing anything to earn it. "This box over here is your shipping bin. Once you have things to sell, put them in here and I'll come by and collect it in the mornings to sell. I'll leave the money in your mailbox for the items."

"All right, thank you!" Lily said brightly. "When would be a good time to come talk to you about the paperwork and legal forms?"

"You can come by as soon as you're ready to fill those out. For today, however, I'd recommend just moving your things and getting settled in. It's best that you rest up before starting your work. Your tools are all in that small shed off the side of your house in a box." Her companions began walking away. "I almost forgot. You may or may not have done your research beforehand, but for your first harvest, I'd recommend parsnips. They're very hardy and grow rather quickly."

"Thank you so much for the recommendation! I'll see you guys around town!" Lily waved as the two figures retreated into the distance, waiting for them to be completely gone before she heaved a sigh of relief, her smiling face morphing into a much more at-home frown.

 _I've been doing an awful lot of smiling lately. It's about time I gave my face a break._


End file.
